As a student the Health Science pathway at Dubiski Career High School my main focus is to succeed in the EMT course. A big problem the healthcare field currently facing is the treatment of the veterans and specifically their mental health. There have been multiple cases where veterans haven’t received the proper diagnosis or treatment. I believe that the solution to this problem might be to set up a series of questionnaires for those veterans to answer to help themselves find a diagnosis and a treatment plan. I propose that in order to help veterans who suffer from mental health we should construct a series of questionnaires that are easy to figure out an answer to help them answer and to find a diagnosis.
Due to a lot of social stigma surrounding veterans, many don’t seek help when they suffer from a mental illness as they are often embarrassed to go to Veteran Affairs or VA, or just don’t have time to wait in the long lines at Veterans Affairs. (National Veterans Foundation) Some Veterans don’t get examined because they might not have any knowledge of mental health and may be scared because they don’t know what’s wrong with them. (Whealin) Veterans who are able to reach help see many positive effects from their mental health, happiness, and holistic health increase, while many of those who are unable to get the necessary treatment show signs of preventable negative consequences. (NAMI)
This problem was brought to my attention because often hear about veterans coming back and due to the trauma that they got from serving our country they either commit suicide or fall into insanity because they were unable to get treatment for a mental illness they have. The main demographic that I would like to help are the veterans as they are are the largest group of people that are struggling with this issue.(NAMI) Family members living with veterans who have mental health issue become deterred by their actions and affects their relationships.
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They might have expected to get their loved ones the same way that they had seen them off, but their duty had scarred them and they could never fully return to their former self. (U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs,1) The government and Veteran Affairs are affected because after their years of service veterans register with the VA in order to get treatment. Even after they are registered and receiving treatment many still are pushed to commit suicide. On the other side of the coin, there are also those that have not registered and commit suicide. ( U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs,2)
A solution I think that would make a great impact would be coming up with different questionnaires for different mental illness or those that would help specify the specific mental illness that you may be facing. Often Veterans try and seek help from primary care physicians to talk about what they are feeling but, don’t find it helpful. The physicians may ask questions that the patient may see either useless or pointless. My solution could help those veterans find a positive effect on their life because these questionnaires could help figure out if they may need time away from what they are doing to help them get better.(NAMI)
Making up questions for them may also save them some time from going to the VA or to a regular doctor just by answering a few questions.(National Veterans Foundation) Many people may not answer the questions truthfully that the physicians may ask them because they feel embarrassed.(Whealin) If Veterans see that they can answer questions on their own time it could help them realize that it’s time to actually go see a physician because if they don’t it could complicate their life.(U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs,2) These questionnaires could also decrease the number of suicides yearly by helping people get treatment sooner. (U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs,1)
Every mental illness is different and different questionnaires will help narrow it down to one illness. Coming up with this solution could affect the veterans and family in a positive way. It may give some people closure as to know the truth about their issues and help the families knowing that there was something wrong with their loved one when they weren’t acting themselves. Sometimes just knowing helps people feel better about themselves and could make them want to seek treatment. This could also affect the VA in a positive way because it could help the Veterans actually schedule appointments to the VA to get it confirmed and diagnosed by a doctor. The VA would also know for future references that the questionnaires to could help them with future patients.
In my EMT class, we have many things we must learn about and one is being able to care for patients experiencing a behavioral or psychiatric crisis. We talk about different mental illnesses and their side effects. It’s very important for us to know the side effects and the different illnesses so we could quickly find a solution to help someone with whatever ailment they have. Some mental illness can make some people do things they normally wouldn’t do, so family members may call 9-1-1 if a family member is acting strange or causing harm to themselves. (Emergency Care and Transportation of the Sick and Injured) Many times people may get violent and students are taught how to handle situations like that.
Through the course, I have learned that communication is a major key in any type of psychiatric crisis. Anything that may be perceived as negative or poor may escalate the situation, so we try to calm people down so they can talk to us and so we could provide care for them.(Emergency Care and Transportation of the Sick and Injured) If they get violent we have to calm them with reassurance and avoid restraints or other physical interactions that may cause harm to us or the patient. Therefore, in some cases, people will de-escalate when a level of trust is established so it is the goal of the EMT to achieve this bond. By learning about different mental health illnesses I could come up with different questions that could help me be able to talk to people with these illnesses calmly and be able to understand their needs.
I propose a series of questionnaires for mental health that could help veterans who suffer from mental health problems to diagnose themselves. It’s important to at least try and find a diagnosis for those who have a mental illness so it could lower the number of suicides for veterans.
